Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-16
CHINESE FARMING.



London Morning Post.
In passing through the silk-growing
district which begins very near to Snang-
hi, and extends all around to the city of
HanSchow, could but be struck indeed
/ with the comfort which prevailed every
where. The farm houses of China, or at
any rate in that part of China, were
models of what farm houses should be-
| had expected to see squalor and wretch
edness, and was i'll prepared for what |
really beheld. Exceedingly good garden
ing was of course prepared for, for
Chinese gardening is synonymous with
everything that is neat and productive.
But the orchards and mulberry trees
all beautifully trimmed, with the
brick-built and excellent houses half
hidden away in them, certainly astonished
me. | CHANGED to land from my house
boat frequently in order to shoot wood
cock, for it was winter time when |
passed through the district. To get these
birds it was necessary to scramble over
the fields and through the mulberry Or
Chards Of the district, and l was simply
amazed to see how beautiful the groves
OF trees were kept Underneath great
quantities of vegetables were grown, not
foot of earth appeared to be wasted,
and every inch was in the most superb
order Had the whole country been q
vast garden, it could not have been
better tended and cared for.
There were not hereabouts any
hedges or walls, the fields were divided
from each other by deep dykes, which
served the double purpose of marking out
the lend and irrigating or draining, as the
case might be, the adjacent soil. The
trees, of which there were myriads, were
all planted with mathematical eXactneSs
and in the greatest order, unlike the
trees in many English orchards, which
seem to have been stuck into the ground
with q view of wasting as much space as
possible. And as, fer the tops of the
trees, they had all been carefully trimmed
to the same pattern, every little
bough having been inspected end cut
IS circumstances CHANGED to require,
never saw anything half so
orderly in any country in the world; for
these were no ornamental gardens which
l was going through, but mulberry
orchards, extending over hundreds of
square miles Of country and owned by
thousands of different huSbandmen.
Inside thu house, again, was surprised
at the comfort which prevailed. In each
one there we're at least two rooms set
apart specially for the silk worms, and
these were kept scrupulously clean. The
other rooms OF the house were well fur
nished, comfortable and warm-in every
case very clean also; and l did not see in
any country house any of the squalor or
misery one sees in many English, Scotch,
end eSDecialIV irish districts
At the time when | was in this country,
too, there was very general feeling of
increased contentment spTinging up
owing to the opening of some large silk
winding factories AZ Shanghai by Ameri-
can and English firms. Hitherto the
winding OF the silk from the cOcOons had
been done in most cases by the silk
growers themselves, and the demand for
the silk thus indifferently wound and the
prices paid for it were alike small. But
with the establishment of siik-winding
factories filed with steam machinery at
Shanghai it was hoped and expected by
the silk growers that the price of coc0Cns
would 60 up, and that consequently silk
growing would improve as an industry.
In any case the entire population seemed
to be prosperous and well COntented. 1t
does not always do to take the dress of
any Chinaman as an index TO the wealth
he may possess. He may have many rea
sOns-am0ng them being dread Of at
tracting the attention of some repacious
mandarin-for not showing more
richness Of attire than is absolutely
necessary, end he may prefer
to go about in warm rags than to ran the
risk of being "squee2ed" by the local Off
Gals, so that many traveller may mis-
take this Intentional poverty of attire for
want Of money. l had pointed out to me
in Canton one day, for example, 3 particr-
larly wo-begone-lo0king Chiaamaa going
up the street. The gentleman who was
with me, and who was g resident OF the
adjacent island of Shamien, said: "PGor?
wish l was IS rich as that Cninsman."